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Campaign reform or constitution reform?

By George Baumler

  We need campaign finance reform, or so say all the pundits and those firmly entrenched in power.  How about a little scrutiny into the so-called campaign reforms already enacted and how they are destroying the very freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights?  A careful examination of 2 USC 431, a bill passed in the name of campaign finance reform, seems to do just that.  According to 2 USC 431" (9)(A), The term ''expenditure'' includes - (i) any purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office; and (ii) a written contract, promise, or agreement to make an expenditure. (B) The term ''expenditure'' does not include - (i) any news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication, unless such facilities are owned or controlled by any political party, political committee, or candidate; "

What that means to the average citizen concerned about an issue such as the VET, gun control, excessive taxation or any thing else, is that, under this code, printing handbills to educate or persuade the public during an election cycle is considered an expenditure and is forbidden.  Only the commercial press and media are exempted.  That's right!  You, John Q. Public, no longer have the freedom and right to print flyers or newspapers if it may influence an election.  Exempted of course, are major media, who are well known for their balanced reporting and evenhandedness.  Of course their endorsements of candidates have no monetary value except perhaps the costs of column inches or the costs of air time, either of which amounts to free advertising, though one sided.  

The Bill of Rights guarantees the freedom of the press in the very first amendment.  There has never been an interpretation of the 1st Amendment stating that only the commercial media have freedom of the press.  In fact, the Bill of Rights guarantees the rights of the people.  The Constitution, it seems, is no obstacle at all to the mighty statesmen who swore an oath of office to uphold and defend that very Constitution with all its inconvenient rights for commoners.  The law passed without much fanfare or coverage from the great defenders of liberty in the commercial media.

 You can read the entire text of  2 USC 431 here.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=2&sec=431

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